Review: 'Dixie Swim Club' comfortable fun

By Steve Barnes

Published 2:43 pm, Monday, June 2, 2014

Comparing a play to a television sitcom is almost never intended favorably, yet in the case of "The Dixie Swim Club" it's not meant as harsh criticism. Seemingly calculated to appeal to as wide a swath of American audiences as possible, like a middle-brow sitcom shown at an early hour on a major network, the feel-good comedy is written with smooth professionalism. The play delivers several laughs a minute for almost two hours, balanced by mild conflict and greater sentimentality. Its ambition doesn't extend beyond leaving most viewers with smiles of mild satisfaction from being entertained and a feeling that they haven't wasted their time.

The play, running through June 21 at Curtain Call Theatre, follows five women over approximately 30 years. Friends since they were on their high school swim team together, we first meet them in their early 40s, during their annual girls-only vacation on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Subsequent scenes reunite them at the beach house after varying amounts of time have passed, offering opportunity for conversations and jokes about a spectrum of life experiences and milestones.

Though the characters are all identifiable types — the driven career woman, the man-focused flirt, the steady organizer, the ne'er-do-well, the naif — as played at Curtain Call they're rarely reduced to mere stereotypes. Director Dianne O'Neill and the actresses don't always go for the obvious or easy choice, offering nuances and layers that, one feels sure, aren't always present in productions of "The Dixie Swim Club."

Cristine Loffredo plays the oft-married blonde who's always on the prowl for the next prospect, but she doesn't overemphasize either her character's lustiness or underlying desperation. Joan Meyer has a hardy soul and hearty humor as Vernadette, who suffers endless hardship without being defined or diminished by it; Pam O'Connor strikes the right balance as a longtime nun who decides she wants a different life; Pat Hoffman is believable as a powerful attorney who (mostly) doesn't regret not having time for a family; and Denice Cross brings a leveling assurance to Sheree, who's meticulous in her planning but never too much of an authority figure.

"The Dixie Swim Club" was written by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, who among them have scores of credits in film and television, including, unsurprisingly, "The Golden Girls." They now write Southern-inflected comedies together under the collective name Jones Hope Wooten, and they're skilled enough at the mechanics of playwriting and the creation of accessible characters and broad humor that more than 2,900 productions of their plays were mounted in just the first eight years of their collaboration.

Their success is understandable: They make plays that are easy to cast and stage, won't offend anybody and will make most audiences laugh. Art made by committee — in this case the theatrical equivalent of a sitcom writers room — can be supremely competent and often hilarious. It is rarely distinctive or lasting. Plays by Beckett and Mamet don't sound like they could have been written by anyone else. With "The Dixie Swim Club," the authorship almost doesn't matter.